Reasons To Be Cheerful

[Sneakeater]

I go to Hudson Smokehouse a fair amount.  It’s the best barbecue in the City. 

[Wilfrid]

Please post that in a New York BBQ thread or face a two month suspension. :the-moderators:

Or not joking, I walked past Mabel’s last night on the way to Le Croc, and it was fine years ago, but it was years ago I went there.

[Sneakeater]

Even better, I started a dedicated thread about it last year.

This is why I don't bother to post about restaurants any more.  Writing a fair evaluation of a restaurant is hard work.  If it's not going to register, what's the point?

[joethefoodie]

8 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

I go to Hudson Smokehouse a fair amount.  It’s the best barbecue in the City. 

Are you trying to tell me something along the lines of: "Have the veal...it's the best in the city?"

[Sneakeater]

I have no hidden agenda.  More particularly, I haven't hidden a gun in the bathroom.

[joethefoodie]

Just now, Sneakeater said:

I have no hidden agenda.  More particularly, I haven't hidden a gun in the bathroom.

You gotta admit - those toilets were cool.

[prasantrin]

1 hour ago, Sneakeater said:

Even better, I started a dedicated thread about it last year.

This is why I don't bother to post about restaurants any more.  Writing a fair evaluation of a restaurant is hard work.  If it's not going to register, what's the point?

I knew the thread existed and I read it even though the chances of my going there are slim to none.     

I actually read all or almost all reviews, but rarely comment on them since I will never or probably never get to go to those places. 

[voyager]

1 hour ago, Sneakeater said:

 Writing a fair evaluation of a restaurant is hard work.  If it's not going to register, what's the point?

Word.

[Sneakeater]

1 hour ago, prasantrin said:

I knew the thread existed and I read it even though the chances of my going there are slim to none.     

I actually read all or almost all reviews, but rarely comment on them since I will never or probably never get to go to those places. 

To be clear, my concern isn't whether people read me or not.  It's that I participate on discussion boards for conversation.  If posts don't generate conversation, then as far as I'm concerned I wasted my time writing them.  If I want to hear myself talk, I can read my newsletter/website.  (I mean, I already KNOW I like Hudson Smokehouse!)

And if it's like a year later, and people are like, why didn't you say this already, when I did, then it's really a waste of time.

[Sneakeater]

I think another thing happening here -- and this is yet another example of an incipient trend that was accelerated by The Pandemic -- is that we're all aging out of enthusiasm.

There was a time when a mention of outstanding barbecue in an easily accessible neighborhood in The Bronx (like at least as easy to get to as the OG John Brown's in LIC was) would have had people on a foodboard flocking.  But now nobody can be arsed (and who goes to neighborhoods they think are sketchy anyway?*).

That's why I don't bother to write about other favorites like Coszcal de Allende in Bay Ridge and Cielito in Astoria -- or the galvanic new Corona Plaza scene (RIGHT OFF the subway), my favorite discovery of this Summer, like the Red Hook Ball Fields but more fun.  Who's gonna go?  Or even care?

________________________________________________

* Today, on an opera board, somebody said they would never consider going to an event in McGolrick Park in Greenpoint cuz it's "skeazy".  It made my blood boil.  Not cuz I'm a Brooklyn Loyalist, but because it's classist, racist, and built on prejudice rather than facts (and evidence of an "Old" just giving up on new experiences -- which reflects badly on the rest of us Olds).  Greenpoint isn't skeazy.  McGolrick Park isn't skeazy.  If you can't be bothered to leave Manhattan, and don't want to go anywhere you've never been before, and are deathly afraid of interacting with possibly brown (or God forbid Polish) "poor people", then don't try to present your laziness and racist classism as a sign of discernment.

[Sneakeater]

I admire @Wilfrid for continuing to write about all those places in Harlem.

But he has @The Flon to talk to.

[Sneakeater]

Although I don't write about more mainstream places anymore either.  It just seems like the chances of anybody else's going and engaging about them are very low.

Has anybody else here been to Ci Siamo?

[joethefoodie]

8 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

To be clear, my concern isn't whether people read me or not.  It's that I participate on discussion boards for conversation.  If posts don't generate conversation, then as far as I'm concerned I wasted my time writing them.  If I want to hear myself talk, I can read my newsletter/website.  (I mean, I already KNOW I like Hudson Smokehouse!)

And if it's like a year later, and people are like, why didn't you say this already, when I did, then it's really a waste of time.

Wait a second...I conversed. On that thread!!!

[joethefoodie]

7 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

That's why I don't bother to write about other favorites like Coszcal de Allende in Bay Ridge

Wait a second...I've been twice!

7 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

or the galvanic new Corona Plaza scene (RIGHT OFF the subway)

Wait a second...you just mentioned this for the first time when a bunch of were at Park Side last week!

6 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Has anybody else here been to Ci Siamo?

Wait a second...I've been trying to get a reservation, to no avail.

 

 

[joethefoodie]

7 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

I think another thing happening here -- and this is yet another example of an incipient trend that was accelerated by The Pandemic -- is that we're all aging out of enthusiasm.

There was a time when a mention of outstanding barbecue in an easily accessible neighborhood in The Bronx (like at least as easy to get to as the OG John Brown's in LIC was) would have had people on a foodboard flocking.  But now nobody can be arsed (and who goes to neighborhoods they think are sketchy anyway?*).

We've fledged, but other people do still flock; it's just that they don't get their info from foodboards, they get it from other media.  Take the Korean rice dog phenomena; it has certainly been mentioned here, but is it something anyone in their right mind, or anyone over 30 for that matter, wants to eat?

I follow a number of food (or is it restaurant?)  what one might call influencers.  I wouldn't eat 99.5% of the shit they're trying to influence me to eat. And obviously, I (and my cohorts - i.e. people within a decade or two of my age, and people who care about what they put into their bodies) am not the target audience. And I'm okay with that.

And sure, how much of a schlep, and how annoying a place might be to get to and from, may at the present time have an outsize influence on my decision making. As well as how I perceive my dining partner might enjoy or not enjoy a place.